Weekend Play

I don't know how it happened, but Kevin is a little boy through and through. Cars, construction sites, trains.....all of these are endless sources of entertainment and excitement.

For his first birthday, Kevin got a wooden train set from IKEA. the wooden tracks can be made into a circle, oval or kiney shapes with the curved pieces, or a figure eight when you use all the parts and the bridges. there are four little train cars that connect to each other with magnets. The whole system is simple...no batteries, no noises or lights.....just imagination and play. At the time, it wasn't very interesting, except to take apart the tracks once mom or dad had put everything together...........

The original set ended up with Dad in the divorce, but a few months ago I picked up the same set to see if Kevin was ready to play with it on his own. it's been played with a total of three times in the last six months or so, but this past weekend it was rediscovered in the cabinet, and Little Man knew exactly what to do with it!

He can't use all the pieces on his own just yet (the bridge pieces and making the figure eight are a bit too complicated), but he can play for long stretches of time once the tracks are assembled. It's wonderful to watch him play, pushing the trains along the tracks, crawling along on the floor, making choo choo noises.

Some days it truly amazes me what a complete little person he's already become. The advances he makes seem to come in leaps in bounds. There are days for sure he embodies the 'terrible two's', but mostly this is just such an amazing time to watch him develop and grow.

The Little Artist

Friday when I picked up Kevin after work, he came bearing gifts. He'd made an aquarium. He decorated the fish, painted the tank, laid down the shells and pearls on the bottom...it was amazing how much of the project he had done on his own with just a little supervision (and someone to hang the fish so they were 'swimming').

With his day care provider, Kevin has made some great gifts for Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc....but this was the first project he'd really done on his own without any special occasion attachted to it. His Mommy thought his 'fishies' turned out great!

Change is the only Constant

When I stop to think about it, it has been a very full and probably 7 weeks or so for little man. First, I was gone for almost two weeks while he stayed with his dad and went to daycare, then I came home and he was with me and going to day care for a week.

Then, the vacation period started. Our normal daycare provider went on holiday a week before we did, so Kevin was off to a replacement provider for a week, and on that week Friday I picked him up and we drove to the vacation park for 10 days.

He had a blast - and not much of anything that was like his normal structured schedule during the days. After that, it was back home, a week with just mommy at home (and the pool and the fairly tale woods, and the zoo with daddy) ....... then this week, back to his normal day care, but at a new location .

As a result ( I think) he's decided he doesn't want to go to daycare anymore. Each day, the crying starts as soon as we put clothes on. 'Nee, Kevin gaat niet naar Anky toe!' (No, Kevin will not go to Anky!) Yesterday was a very loud tearful goodbye when I finally left to go to work, and this morning he started again almost as soon as he was awake and he realized mommy was getting ready for work.

So, today was all about bargaining. I admit I'm weak. It was so unlike him to cry and carry on like he did yesterday that I really felt like an afwul mother, abandoning her child for 10 hours a day. I didn't think I could handle a similiar scene again today so when he started in with the 'Nee, Kevin gaat niet naar Anky toe!' I countered with: 'Today you have to go to Anky, but not tomorrow.' 'Today yes, tomorrow no.' I just kept repeating 'today yes, tomorrow no' everytime he started to fuss.

We got in to the car without too much hassle as I explained (well, I tried) that, 'When mommy goes to work, Kevin goes to Anky. But, when mommy doesn't go to work, Kevin stays with mommy.' All he got out of it was 'morgen niet naar Anky, morgen Kevin niet naar Anky' which he made into a little song as we drove to Anky.

When we arrived at Anky's, he shot me a look that clearly said 'What are we doing here?!' but he got out of the car and went inside. When he started to fuss, I told him 'today here, tomorrow with mommy...... today yes, tomorrow no' and he quieted down and even walked me to the door to open and close it for me as is the normal morning ritual. I avoided a blow up today, but who knows how next week will go? :-)

Vacation Part 3 - SprookjesBos (Fairy Tale Forest)

The last week of our summer holidays, Kevin and I met up with a friend and her son to go to the SpookjesBos in Enkhuizen (up in the north of the country). Lars is just 6 weeks older than Kevin, so it was great to go on an outing where Kevin had someone his own age to run around with.


The 'forest' part of the park is filled with these little houses and areas from fairy tales and children's stories (some Dutch specific, but not all) They are done on a scale that the windows are the perfect peeking height for children between the ages of 2 and 5. Each little house is a new scene, and some have songs or part of the rhymes spoken when you walk up to them.

The house pictured below, for example, is the one from Hansel and Gretel, and when we walked up to it, a bit of the story was read to us by the witch. The magic woods took most of the morning to wander through.

The cave that held the elf village was one we had to drag them crying from after we'd been there 15 minutes and heard the story 4 times...when the village gets dark, and all the elves go inside for the night, thunder and lighting started and a witch flew over the village on her broomstick.

From the woods, we went on to the Wizards lake, which didn't interest the duo near as much as the water surrounded by big boulders and the cicrcular layout which meant they could run around and around and around and climb on rocks, and point at the water, and run around and......

Of course, playgrounds with slides are always a big hit, and this park had a lot of slides. We stopped at lamost every one we came across. Small slides, medium slides, twisty slides....slides in tree houses, across bridges, you name it, they slid down it.

One highlight was the ladybug boats they could 'drive' all on thier own. That one we had to do again, even thoug Kevin wasn't too sure at first about mom getting out of his sight for a few seconds at a time the first go-round. He did enjoy it, and after a break at the slide play area near by, it was back for another boat trip. The first ride was included in the admission price, but for extra rides you had to purchase coupons for €.50 each and go to the back of the line. the price for the coupons was ok, but after the second trip, the line had gotten awfully long to do it a third time, so we called it good at 2. It was just over an hour drive each way to get to and from the park, and we were there for a good 4 hours at the park itself before calling it day with two very tired little men to guide back into their car seats!

What a great day! We made a 'date' to go back after the summer holidays when it should be more quiet so we get a chance to do the things we didn't make it to this time around becuase of long lines or tired little men (and mommys, by the end of the day!) The complete 81 photos from this trip (I know, I know....'only 81 photos') are on our photo album on flickr. Click here to go directly to the album

Vacation and Travels (Part 2) - CenterParcs

After Mommy's solo trip to the US for work (and the much needed play weekend with her mommy) it was two weeks of hectic work and then two weeks of holidays together with Little Man.

The first week we spent at a bungalow park in Belgium (well, 5 kilometers over the border from the Netherlands, but still, it's already my 3rd time this year. It works well right now becuase it's a max 2-3 hour drive, we can bring the dogs, and since were not at home, we actually relax instead of doing all kinds of projects and busy work. Still the accomodations leave something to be desired for the price you pay, and while all the nature is lovely, is a screen or two over the windows to keep the mosquitos out really so much to ask for?

The weather was not in our favor for this trip. It rained. Alot. It meant we spent a lot of time in our little bungalow with the faint musty smell and the mysteriously wet floors for hours after the shower, bath or dishwasher was used. During the day we could try to keep the windows and doors open, but come dusk time that was not a good idea unless you wanted to be on the menu for the approximately 50 billion mosquitos in residence at the bungalow park.....

Still, the nice 'nature' meant long walks with the dogs, trips to the petting zoo when the sun shined, and we did make use of the indoor pool complex several times. Little Man got really into it and asked every day if we could 'zwemmen kijken' ('look at swimming', by which he meant 'go play in the water')

We were at the park for 9 nights, and then the second working week of my vacation started. Monday night Little Man went to papa for two nights and spent Tuesday at the Zoo in Amersfoort with papa looking at the tigers and giraffes and other 'wow' animals.

'Nee, I Love You More'

While I was away at the end of June, I spoke to Kevin about every other day. He loves talking on the 'hello' (telephone) and some days he jabbers away and other days we only go round and round about who loves who more.

Kevin speaks a lot of Dutch right now, I'd guess about 2/3 of his vocabulary right now is Dutch, but there are some words that I just always use in English. ' I Love You' is one of those ('Ik hou van jou' just doesn't have the same ring to it) His other English words are 'please', 'thank you', 'bink' (pacifier) and 'I Love You More'.

So, when we have a phone conversation, I tell him I love him, he says 'I love you', then I say 'I love you more'. Then he says 'Nee, (do I have to translate that one?) I love you more'.

For all the other times we 'fight' about his use of the word Nee (loudly and often, at the moment) This is one time I enjoy hearing it!

When I came home from this last trip, he ran into my arms, took my face in his hands and just grinned from ear to ear before hugging me and saying 'mama, I love you too' . It was one of those moments I know I must be doing ok as a mom if this little man can love me so much.

Travels and Vacation (part 1)

It really has been a whirlwind summer this year. At the end of June it, was off to California for a week's worth of meetings with colleagues from around the world, and since I was already that direction, of course I had to stay on for a few days and at least see my mom, if I wasn't going to make it back to the hometown 'burg this trip.

So, after the work part was all done (which means long days where almost every moment is planned from the time you wake up until at least 10 pm at night, day after day) it was a quick flight for a few days of playing in Vegas! Acutally, quite a few of my international colleagues had the same idea, so it could have been like a mini convention, but I didn't see a single face I recgonized in our three days there.

The real purpose for doing Las Vegas now, this year, was that this was the last year of Celine Dion's 5 year run at Ceasear's Palace. Mom and I were in Las Vegas in January 2003, when the Theatre for her show was being finished, and we kind of made a pact that we'd be back to see that show before it ended. It was originally only a three year show, which the pregnancy and arrival of my Little Man pretty wiped wiped out the option for. When the show was extended through the end of 2007 though.....we had to go! I know no-one is actually supposed to admit to liking her music, but the theatre has 4,000 seats which were, even in it's fifth year at 4 or 5 shows a week, for 40 weeks of the year, at least 80% full. For the record, it was an incredible show!

So, Vegas was great...we shopped, we slept out, we were at the pool at 11pm when it was still 90 degrees outside.....it was hot! This may seem like a no-brainer, but I mean it was hot like 'step outside and feel your fingers swell like sausages' hot. It was a great excuse to spend the days in air-conditioned shops and theme hotels (we like the Ventian, in case you can't tell from our flickr photo album) but as soon as you stepped outside the heat hit you like a wall. Overall, I enjoyed this trip, but I'd plan the next trip for winter or spring.

I missed my Little Man, but it was also 10 days to just be me. Sometimes it's nice to remember I'm not only Kevin Daniels' Mommy (although I love having that responsibility 99.9% of the time!)

The Launch of Kevin Daniel's (and his mommy's) Blog!

I must be the last person I know I start a blog. I've been envious of my Best Friend's Blog since she started it after her son was born, but it seemed so time consuming, so artsy, so unlike me that I figured I'd stick to the updates to family and friends via e-mail and free on-online photo albums.


Yet, while the e-mails go out at different times to different people, the content is always pretty much the same (if worded sometimes more carefully than others) and the pictures are always digital 'brag books' of my little man. So, why not combine all that into one place and just send everyone the link?


Well, my employer wouldn't be happy to know that a good part of my first day back after two weeks of holiday was spent on figuring out how to do just that......pretty soon, Yahoo photos won't exist any more, so the first thing I had to do was move all my photos to flickr. Oh, that can't be so difficult, can it?

Between that little move across cyberspace, setting up this blog and linking them both to a google gmail account (and all to each other, I hope) I've spent the better part of three hours at this now. (Ok, maybe four, but I did 'real work' in between, I swear!) I think I finally have it all up and running now.

I have to say, at the end of this set up process, I somehow feel old at 29. And, truthfully, a little out of touch in a world of MySpace profiles and iPods and this kind of stuff that feels like everyone else does with no effort in no time at all.


The future posts will be photos and notes from me, Kevin Daniel's Mommy :-) To keep everyone in the loop, so to speak, and to keep those photo's up to date for everyone! Next up should be the vacation post and photos (though I'll only post a few here and leave the rest on flickr). The url for our photo album on flickr is here, so please bookmark and check this blog and our photo albums reguarly!